Party manifestos Are A Mixed Bag On Inheritance Tax Says Finders

The Party Political manifestos published this week represent a mixed bag with regards to their approach on inheritance tax says Finders.

Finders international probate genealogy firm strongly supports a cut inheritance tax.
Finders says that a cut would ensure that more of those individuals left estates are able to claim the estate without suffering a hefty tax bill. With values of estates rising, this tax is increasingly likely to fall to middle-income families.

As the Political Parties set out their election pledges, Finders welcomes Labour’s commitment to a freeze in inheritance tax thresholds until 2014-15. They also encouraged Labour to go one step further and follow the Conservative pledge to raise the inheritance tax threshold to £1million. This will mean more individuals will be able to claim the estates to which they are entitled without facing a large tax bill, although the cut could have gone further. Inheritance tax is currently set at 40% on all assets worth more than £325,000.

Finders is a professional firm of international probate genealogists and it works mainly with solicitors wishing to trace beneficiaries identified in wills or upon intestacy. Its main business is that of identifying and tracing unknown or missing heirs and beneficiaries worldwide.

Commenting, Daniel Curran, Managing Director, Finders, said:
“As a firm who works closely with heirs, Finders believes that inheritance tax should be cut so as to ensure that heirs are able to get as much benefit as possible from the estates to which they are entitled.

“We welcome the Parties’ proposals to at least freeze the threshold on inheritance tax, although stronger support for a cut would be helpful. We urge all policy makers to pursue policies on inheritance tax which will help ensure that those entitled to estates are able to claim as full entitlement as possible.”